HALTING DEADLY SUPERBUGS : *$2 / PERSON*

JUST $2 per person a year could halt deadly superbugs, OECD says.

Halting the rise of deadly drug-resistant 'superbug' infections that kill millions around the world could cost just $2 per person a year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] said on Wednesday.

Describing  drug resistance as ''one of the biggest threats to modern medicine'', the OECD said, however, that if nothing is done, superbugs could kill some 2.4 million people in Europe, North America and Australia alone over the next 30 years.

The problem of infectious bugs becoming drug-resistant  has been a feature of medicine since the discovery of the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928.

Often called  antomicrobial resistance or AMR, the problem has grown in recent years as bugs resistant to multiple drugs have developed and drugmakers have cut back investment in this field.

The World Health Organization has warned that unless something drastic is done, a post antibiotic era - where basic healthcare becomes life-threatening due to the risk of infection during routine operations - could arrive this century.

A 2014 British government-backed  review estimated that by 2050, the issue could kill an extra 10 million people a year and cost up to $100 million if it is not brought under control.

In a report, the OECD said  ''a short-term investment to stem the superbug tide would save lives and money.''

It proposed a ''five-pronged assault'' on AMR, including promoting better hygiene, ending over-prescription of antibiotics , rapidly testing patients to ensure they  they get the right drug for infections, delaying antibiotic prescriptions and delivering mass media campaigns.

The report found some reasons for cautious optimism, with the average growth of drug resistance slowing down across the OECD, but added there were  ''serious causes for concern

Across the OECD, resistance to second to second and third  line antibiotics    -normally pwerful drugs that present a last line of defense against infections    -is expected to be  70 percent higher  in 2030 compared to AMR rules in 2005.

In low and middle-income countries, drug resistant is high and projected to grow rapidly in Brazil, Indonesia and Russia, for example, between 40 percent and 60 percent of infections are already drug resistant, compared to an OECD  average of  17 percent, and AMR rates are forecast to grow between 4 and 7 times faster than the OECD average between now and 2050.

Tim Jinks, a drug resistant expert at Wellcome Trust global health charity, said the OECD  report showed  ''how simple, cost-effective surveillance, prevention and control methods could save lives.''

''Superbugs are  ''a  fundamental threat to global health and development,'' he said, and  ''investing to tackle the problem now  will save lives and deliver big-pay-offs in the future.'' [Agencies]